On Feb. 28, Craig Waters retired after 35 years working as a lawyer and communications director at the Florida Supreme Court. Craig is best known as the public spokesperson for Florida’s highest tribunal during the tumultuous Bush v. Gore presidential election cases in 2000. He announced major court decisions in cases that helped determine the outcome of the disputed 2000 election. But his work involved much more. First Amendment groups describe his career as a groundbreaking advancement of open government and transparency that serves as a national model. He was an early pioneer for the idea of courts around the nation using high-tech means of communications like the web, live-streaming legal arguments, and social media to better inform the public. This body of work earned Waters the 2022 Pete Weitzel/Friend of the First Amendment Award from the First Amendment Foundation.
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Class of 1979